Relationships between deformation and partial melting in the Palmer migmatites, South Australia

Abstract

The migmatites of the Palmer area, in the core of the Mt Lofty Ranges metamorphic belt, are considered to have formed by partial melting of quartzo‐feldspathic schists and gneisses, rather than by metamorphic segregation as formerly suggested. Large‐ and small‐scale tectonic structures indicate that the Cambrian Kanmantoo Group rocks in the Palmer area have undergone three deformations during the Delamerian Orogeny and that these are similar to those described elsewhere in the Mt Lofty Ranges. The relationships of the migmatitic veins to these structures indicate that some partial melt was present during a large part of the structural history: some veins formed before and after the first folding event, and some formed during or after the third folding event even though the metamorphic grade appears to have been waning in areas more distant from the highest grade ore. The early onset of partial melting is consistent with previously reported evidence that thermal activity in the belt began before penetrative deformation.